Spraying ahead: Andrew Wilkinson shows InGroup the future of decorating

InGroup had another productive Friday morning, with 19 members around the table and 4 new referrals passed. Members also reported almost £8,000 of business won from past referrals, which is a great reminder of what regular networking can do.

This week’s 10-minute talk came from Andrew Wilkinson of Wilkinson Decorators. Andrew grew up in a decorating family. His dad’s generation brushed ceilings with an eight-inch brush, but today a lot of Andrew’s work is done with spray equipment.

Andrew was honest about getting started. He bought his first spray machine around 20 years ago, and for years it stayed in the lock-up because it made such a mess. Things changed when he sent the whole team on a professional spray course. Now they can set a machine up in about ten minutes and spray a whole ceiling in seconds. One decorator can spray the ceilings of a three-bedroom house in a day.

His key message was that preparation still matters most. A sprayed finish is so smooth that it shows every flaw, so the prep and masking have to be spot on. On new builds, Wilkinson Decorators spray the ceilings and the first coats on the walls, then finish the walls with a brush and roller. That gives a finish that’s easy to touch up later.

The team are also spraying uPVC windows in any colour and painting kitchen doors, and they plan to take on more kitchen work. Andrew is a big fan of resin repairs on old timber windows too. Splicing in new wood can save a window that might otherwise be replaced.

Andrew also gave a serious safety reminder. Professional airless sprayers work at thousands of psi and can cause severe injuries, so this is a job to leave to trained decorators.

Find out more about Wilkinson Decorators: http://www.paintingdecoratingsanding.co.uk/

InGroup meets every Friday from 8 to 9am in Kendal. Local businesses interested in joining are very welcome to get in touch.